1282. Robert Southey to Neville White, 3 March 1807

Your parcel reached me on Sunday evening, and I have perused every line of its contents with deep and painful
interest. The letters, and your account (of which I should say much were I writing to any other person), have made me thoroughly
acquainted with one of the most amiable and most admirable human beings that ever was ripened upon earth for heaven. Be assured
that I will not insert a sentence which can give pain or offence to anyone. There will come a time (and God only knows how soon it
may come) when some one will perform that office for me, which I am now performing for your incomparable brother ; and I shall endeavour to show how that office ought to
be performed. I will be scrupulously careful; and if, when the papers pass through your hands, you should think I have not been
sufficiently so, I beg you will, without hesitation, expunge whatever may appear exceptionable.

. . . .
. . .
. . . . When I obeyed
the impulse which led me to undertake this task, [1] it was from a knowledge that Henry White had left behind him an example, which ought not to be lost, of
well-directed talents, and that, in performing an act of respect to his memory, I should at the same time hold up the example to
others who have the up-hill paths of life to tread. No person can be more thoroughy convinced that goodness is a better thing than
genius, and that genius is no excuse for those follies and offences which are called its eccentricities.

The mention made in my last of any difference in religious opinions from your brother was merely incidental; [2] nor is it by any
means my intention to say any more upon the subject than simply to state that those opinions are not mine, lest it should be
supposed they were, from the manner in which I speak of him.